In general, a multi-tubular shell-and-tube reactor in the form of a heat exchanger is a type of reactor that is used for the purpose of efficiently removing heat produced in a reaction. Such a reactor has a solid catalyst filled in a plurality of reaction tubes, and supplies a raw material gas into the reaction tubes to create a chemical reaction in order to obtain a desired component. In addition, a heat medium circulates through a reactor shell so that the chemical reaction can take place in an optimum condition.
The multi-tubular shell-and-tube reactor tends to have hot spots at specific areas of the reaction tubes. Such hot spots cause problems such as of shortened lifetime and degraded selectivity for a desired target product owing to the deterioration of the catalyst.
Thus, various approaches have been promoted to achieve efficient heat transfer to the plurality of the reaction tubes inside the reactor in order to decrease the hot spots. However, in a high-load reaction process, the degree of improvement due to these approaches is not sufficient, and therefore a need to develop a technology capable of securing high yield and operation stability while effectively controlling the temperature of the hot spots still remains.